CHARLES DOUCETTE, FRAN FRANCIS, COURTNEY LEONARD, AND ALAN SYLIBOY
May 30 to November 13, 2016
Curated by: David Diviney
Four First Nations artists have come together to take part in two creative residencies in Nova Scotia—one at The Deanery Project in Lower Ship Harbour in 2014, the other on Brier Island in 2015. The basis of this collaborative exchange is centered on reconciling the parallel journeys of the Mi’kmaq People and the whales of the North Atlantic. As artist Alan Syliboy states:
Whales are seldom-sighted travelers indigenous to the world beneath the waters of Mi’kma’ki. Recently (just a few centuries back), the course of whale life was significantly altered by contact with visitors who stayed. While predation did not begin with these settlers, their pursuit of livelihoods beyond subsistence became a threat to the very existence of whales. Their habitat too, has deteriorated with the depletion of food sources, purity of water, and intrusion of substances, sounds, climatic change, and physical hazards that have accompanied the new ways.
Through a self-directed framework of dialogue and artmaking, The Path We Share examines shared stories of contact and consequence to arrive at newfound forms of expression and understanding.
